RONNY DEILA has revealed that he has felt like a criminal over the past fortnight as the calls for his head have intensified.

The defeat to Ross County in the League Cup semi-final at Hampden was quickly followed by a league defeat at Pittodrie to Aberdeen – the second time the Dons have beaten his side in the Granite City this term.

It made for another uncomfortable chapter in Deila’s Celtic career with former players queuing up to tell him just how out of his depth they believe he is.

The Celtic manager has admitted that the incessant criticism takes its toll with sleepless nights coupled with an air of distraction as he toiled to enjoy a visit from his teenage daughters, Thale and Live, when they were recently visiting him from Norway.

“Many times I have sat after games and thought that I don’t want to do this anymore,” said Deila. “Because it is so painful to lose.

“It’s like you feel as though the police are standing outside your door in the morning, waiting to take you in because you have done something criminal. That’s how it feels.

“I know the players have the same feeling. It takes a day but then you have to get this away and look forward. Then you need to have fun when doing things. If you don’t, you will never improve.

“You don’t want to wake up at times. You just lie there. Sometimes you don’t sleep either, just lie there thinking. But that’s why I am here. Because I really care and want to turn things around.

“The hardest part in life is when you don’t know what the answer is. But when you know the way forward you can do that. For me, it takes 48 hours to get the disappointment and reflection out of the body.

“My kids said a good thing to me. When we lost the semi-final [to Ross County], they were here. It wasn’t easy to try and look at them after that game.

“Then they said to me: We know how it is daddy. We talk together, but you don’t listen. That’s what it is like when you come home from a loss. You are thinking and you are not actually there.

“You feel the pain twice, but that’s how it is and that is what I have chosen. I chose this life. I’ve done it for 20 years.

“It’s hell or heaven all of the time. That’s how football is.

“That’s why I have to try to deal with it, but it you don’t feel pain or happiness, then I think I would be very bored.

“It’s been intense. But to get out of this situation you must stay calm and keep believing in what you. Everyone has to drag in the same direction and bounce back.”

And Deila has insisted that he has a thick enough skin to cope with the flak that comes with the Celtic job.

“I know all the time that there is another world out there,” he said. “But this is a lifestyle. It’s not a job. I say all the time.

“I can assure you that I have been as furious as this when I was in Stromsgodset as well. We didn’t win an away game for a year. Every time we went away, we came home with a loss. It was in the newspapers all the time.

“I said the same things that we had to learn from the experience, develop and in the end we would reach the goal. That’s how it has been in my football career. “